ArchiveMay 2017

The downtown relief line is still at least 14 years away. Cars on the current overcrowded Yonge line are shown here. Here’s the good news: following a vote last week by city council, the relief line subway – the Toronto transit project long championed by actual experts– is now closer to becoming a reality than ever before. Here’s the bad news: it’s still at least fourteen years away. Yeah, yeah...

Even as the Toronto islands waters rise, Mayor John Tory's executive committee shelved a stormwater management report because of concerns about a fee proposed for parking lot owners. The waters are running high on Toronto Island. Widespread flooding means visitor ferry traffic has been halted. All park permits through June 30 have been cancelled. There’s talk that the island will remain...

After decades of pushing the badly-needed relief line subway down the TTC’s list of priorities, the Line 1 subway is overloaded each and every weekday – creating intolerable conditions for transit riders, writes Matt Elliott. Decades from now, when historians look back at this time in Toronto’s history, they’re going to be so confused. “So,” they’ll ask, “in 2017 Toronto was experiencing its...

A cyclist uses the separated bike lane on Richmond in June 2015. I was cut off by an aggressive driver as I crossed the street to city hall last week. I was in the crosswalk with lots of fellow pedestrians during a no-doubt walk sign, but that didn’t matter. The driver was hell-bent on making a right turn, and missed me by inches. I got lucky. These incidents are too common on Toronto’s deadly...

In a response to the provincial budget on April 28, John Tory said the Ontario government “turned their backs” on Toronto's housing and transit needs. When Mayor John Tory and city council made the agonizing decision last Wednesday to permanently close 138 units of social housing that have fallen into disrepair, they still held out hope. Hope that some timely investment in social...